A judge in New York has determined that former President Donald Trump and his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are responsible for fraudulently inflating their family businesses’ value to secure favorable terms from banks and insurers. The decision, a result of a lawsuit initiated by New York Attorney General Letitia James, carries significant repercussions for Trump’s business ventures. Additionally, the judge revoked the business certifications of the implicated Trump entities, including the Trump Organization.
Judge Arthur Engoron stated that Trump and his sons submitted inaccurate financial statements for approximately ten years. The judge dismissed their claim that disclaimers rendered the statements non-fraudulent, with Trump referring to them as a “worthless clause.” Engoron emphasized that relying on these disclaimers was indeed worthless, and Trump’s defenses presented during his sworn deposition lacked legal or factual basis.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, pursuing $250 million in damages and a prohibition on the Trumps from holding business officer roles in New York, celebrated the ruling as a “major victory” for the rule of law.
She asserted that the decision affirmed her claims of the Trumps deceiving financial institutions and evading taxes. Trump, denying any wrongdoing and deeming the lawsuit a politically motivated “witch hunt,” criticized the ruling on social media. He pledged to appeal to the highest courts, contending his company had been unjustly maligned and emphasizing the perceived unfairness of the ruling.
He wrote on X, “Days from a government shutdown and the GOP focuses on a Biden impeachment. Trump commits fraud forcing the dissolution of the Trump Organization. Biden supports working class families and labor unions on the UAW picket line. See the difference?”
Eric Trump, the second son of Trump and an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said on Instagram that he had lost all faith in the New York legal system, and accused the judge and the attorney general of having a coordinated effort to destroy his father’s life, company, and accomplishments.
He also disputed the judge’s valuation of Mar-a-Lago, and said that it was speculated to be worth well over a billion dollars, making it arguably the most valuable residential property in the country. He said that it was all so corrupt and coordinated.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House Director of Strategic Communications for Trump, said on “The View” that New Yorkers always kind of knew that Trump was a fraud and a charlatan and a conman, and that the ruling put it into the starkest terms.
She said that it was crazy that Trump inflated the value of Mar-a-Lago by 2,300%, and that an average person would be in jail for doing it. She also said that Trump thinks that being a loser or being poor or struggling financially are the absolute worst things, and that potentially seeing the sign Trump Tower taken off of 5th Avenue would be more devastating to him than sitting in a prison cell because it would say he’s unequivocally a loser in the place he always wanted to make it.
Michael Moore, the filmmaker and activist who has been a vocal opponent of Trump, tweeted, “Another reminder that this man, in totality, is a fraud. He is a scam artist. He steals from the public, his workers who have not been paid, the students of his ‘university’, his lawyers, his associates and business partners, and now his followers in donations that he pockets
